Singing Potatoes
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Wednesday, 3 July 2002
Literacy

Having downloaded the level editor for Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, I went looking on the Web for tutorials on how to actually use it, as the documentation is fairly sparse.

Ye gods. The literacy level of most of the people writing tutorials is abysmally low. I mean, below third-grade level. Typos aside, it becomes fairly obvious that many gamers don't actually read, because their spelling reflects an attempt to render words that they've only heard, but never seen in print.

The most prevalent example is the multitude of ways they attempt to spell a certain French word meaning "see there!" — in the past twenty-four hours, I've seen wah-lah, whalah, walla, wallah, vuala, vualah, vwa-lah, and the ever-popular viola. Honestly, it makes me want to grab them around the throat and shake roughly, while screaming "The word is voilà! VOILÀ!. And a viola is a stringed orchestral instrument in the violin family, you morons!"

Re-reading the above paragraph, I have come to the conclusion that video games don't make a person prone to violence. The shockingly bad writings of people who should have been reading during their formative years, instead of playing video games, make a person prone to violence. At least if that person is me.

Posted by godfrey (link)
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